Books: Lynching Comedy

TROUBLE IN JULY—Erskine Caldwell—Duell, Sloan & Pearce ($2.50).

Briefly, Trouble in July is the story of how a colored boy named Sonny Clark is hunted down and lynched for a rape he did not commit. More elaborately, it is an account of the behavior of Southern whites during such a man hunt. In particular, it is a tragicomic study of the plight of 300-pound Jeff McCurtain, sheriff of Julie County, Georgia.

The political situation is such that Jeff runs a fair chance of losing his job whether he lies low or takes action. Worse still, a Negro named Sam Brinson, of whom Jeff...